When Premiership Rugby announced at the turn of the decade that it was aiming to emulate football's Championship in terms of popular support, the general reaction was one of incredulity. Leicester apart, no club regularly attracted gates of 20,000 and above and the average of the majority was in four figures.

When Wasps take on Gloucester at Twickenham on Saturday in an event called the Stinger – rugby is just part of the entertainment package on offer, with £1 from every ticket sold going to Sport Relief – they will be playing before a crowd up to eight times the average at their Adams Park ground in Wycombe this season. Last month, Saracens attracted a world record gate for a club match when they played Harlequins at Wembley: 83,889.

"Our game is expanding and the crowd at Wembley last month was a tangible demonstration of how far club rugby in England has come," says Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby. "Taking matches to big stadiums will always be a question of balance and, as Saracens and Harlequins have shown, it takes time to build them up into events.

"They will not be for every club but they are proving an effective way of bringing in a new audience."

Saturday's match will be the third time that Wasps have hired Twickenham around St George's Day. What the club hoped would become a tradition disappeared when there was a change in ownership a few seasons ago. Its revival comes at a time when attendances in Wycombe have dropped to a disappointing level: the highest attendance this season has been 7,040 against Leicester last October, while only 3,002 had turned up for the Amlin Challenge Cup against Bayonne the week before. Tickets for the Stinger passed the 30,000 mark two weeks ago.

"Playing Gloucester at Twickenham is a statement of intent by the club to compete on the big stage again," says Jeremy Wilton, Wasps' chief operating officer. "We are in a building phase and will look to grow our audience over the next few years. The Stinger is about delivering a great day out that caters for the crosssection of fans who will be attending."

The Millennium Stadium will be hosting two Pro12 matches on Sunday: Cardiff Blues face the Scarlets and Newport Gwent Dragons take on Ospreys in Judgment Day. While Wasps are hiring Twickenham and marketing the event, as well as selling the tickets, the Blues and the Dragons receive a flat fee from the Welsh Rugby Union, which does all the organising. A crowd of more than 36,000 turned up last year and, with the relationship between Premiership Rugby and Regional Rugby Wales enhanced by the partnership they formed during the negotiations over the European Cup, a joint venture is being considered.

"One idea that has been mooted is for a Pro 12/Premiership double header at the Millennium Stadium," McCafferty says. "We have clubs that are close to Wales geographically, such as Gloucester and Bath, while Bristol are pushing for promotion, and two matches involving different leagues at an iconic venue on the same day has the potential to be a great event. Again, you would need to give it a few years to build it up, but it shows how the clubs are thinking.

"The trend was started by Max Guazzini when he was in charge of Stade Français and took a game against Toulouse in 2005 to the Stade de France, before then being taken on by Mark Evans at Harlequins. It has proved highly successful but where we differ in England to France is that we do not have grounds where the capacity is half that of Twickenham.

"Perhaps the World Cup next year, when games will be played at various football grounds, will change that. It is that sort of capacity we in England will want for the Rugby Champions Cup semi-finals because there is so little time to sell tickets."

Twickenham will host next Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final between Saracens and Clermont Auvergne and the attendance is likely to be smaller than that generated by Wasps, who have had six months to market the Stinger. Saracens drew less than 26,000 for last year's semi-final with Toulon at the ground and, while the club felt the ticket prices set by the organisers were too high, the main problem was the lack of time to market the event and there was little in the way of travelling support.

The Stinger provides an opportunity for some players to fulfil an ambition of playing at the home of English rugby. In times past, the ground was the location for the English Cup final and then the LV Cup, but that route to HQ has disappeared.

"Twickenham is the best stadium in the world and you want to be playing there," says the Wasps' and England scrum-half Joe Simpson. "It is where you want to be playing and the players who thrive in occasions like this are the ones who go on to play international rugby. It gives you an extra impetus."

Moving house occasionally is not for everyone. "I cannot see us taking matches away from Sandy Park any time soon," says the Exeter chief executive, Tony Rowe. "We are increasing the capacity to 12,500 and I would rather us be here in front of a packed house enjoying the fantastic match-day experience we have developed than going to an 80,000 stadium which may only be half-full. Each to their own."

The Premiership season has traditionally come to start with the London double-header at Twickenham, which this season attracted a crowd of more than 62,000, but that will change in 2015-16 because of the World Cup. The top clubs will not be able to play for the month it takes to complete and owners are reluctant to move the start of the campaign to August and play for four weeks before shutting down for the same period.

"We are looking to see what we will be able to do then," McCafferty says. "The double-header is a good example of what can be built up over time: it is now a major part of our calendar. The World Cup will be interesting because venues like St James's Park in Newcastle and the Falmer Stadium in Brighton will be used, throwing up the possibilities of links in the future.

"Clubs will continue to play at their own grounds for the vast majority of matches but big days out have become an important part of the calendar."